10. Survey for The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change

11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology

1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally

Greetings,

Welcome to the March issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film premieres, books, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.

We are excited to let you know that the Journey of the Universe film will have its premiere at Yale on March 26. Along with this premiere on the East Coast, there will also be premieres in San Francisco on April 30, in Chicago May 21, and in Seattle September 30. The film will also be shown at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital on March 27.

The Journey of the Universe project is a collaboration of Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. This project includes a film, a book, and an educational DVD series, which will be available in June 2011. Inspired by the New Story of Thomas Berry, a cultural historian who wrote The Universe Story with Swimme, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. For more information about the project, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org

We are pleased to announce the launching of a new website for the work of John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker. This includes their work on the Journey of the Universe project, the Forum on Religion and Ecology, and the Earth Charter. It brings together these three areas of rapidly growing interest: the need for a large scale story of the universe and Earth community; the growing alliance of religion and ecology as a field in academia and as a force in society; the comprehensive ethical framework of cosmology, ecology, justice, and peace in the Earth Charter. For further information see: www.emergingearthcommunity.org

We want to direct your attention to The Global Oneness Project, which produces films, media, and education materials to question the current paradigm of globalization and facilitate greater interconnectedness and wholeness amidst the complexity of contemporary civilization. The Global Oneness Project has recently completed a comprehensive study guide to accompany their films. For more information, visit: http://www.globalonenessproject.org/education.

We are happy to inform you about a call for papers issues by the journal Process Studies, which is seeking submissions for a Special Focus Section on “Animals and Process Thought.” See below for more information.

In an effort to better engage faith communities in conservation in sub-Saharan Africa, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has released a White Paper, “From Practice to Policy to Practice: Connecting Faith and Conservation in Africa.” You can read the Paper here: http://frameweb.org/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=6823&lang=en-US.

Finally, we would like to invite you to take a survey for the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) on Global Environmental Change (GEC), which is working in partnership with the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and UNESCO. To participate in this survey, visit: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/IHDPSurveyLink.

We hope that this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.

When cultural historian and spiritual ecologist Thomas Berry, described by Newsweek magazine as “the most provocative figure among the new breed of eco-theologians,” passed away in 2009 at age 94, he left behind a dream of healing the “Earth community.” In his numerous lectures, books, and essays, Berry proclaimed himself a scholar of the earth, a “geologian,” and diligently advocated for a return to Earth-based spirituality.

Our ecological dilemmas provoke powerful emotions and deeply contested views. How should we think about them? And how can we live together, or even talk together, when we cannot listen to people who think differently?

In a lively and at times very funny book, Roger S. Gottlieb (A Greener Faith, This Sacred Earth, A Spirituality of Resistance) explores these questions in a collection of distinct but related philosophical short stories. Fictional characters with personalities, individual histories, and strong opinions wrestle with the meaning of life, the value of nature, animal rights, the roles of science and religion in environmentalism, and political choices facing environmental activists—as well as their own anger, fear, despair, and close-mindedness.

Encountering forcefully articulated positions and engaging characters, readers will be moved to reconsider their own beliefs—and to examine personal barriers to truly listening to those “on the other side.”

Cosmosophia: Cosmology, Mysticism and the Birth of a New Myth takes the reader on an extensive historical journey through the ideas and worldviews that have shaped the West, as well as a journey around the world to explore the various mystical traditions that could provide alternatives to the Western worldview.

Ultimately, it is argued that the unique challenges of today’s world cannot be solved through a return to the ideas of the past—or even through mere ideas at all—but by a deep mystical re-connection to our world and the creative, imaginative process of telling a new myth that integrates our mystical traditions and modern science.

Prof. Lindsay Falvey's most recent book deals, somewhat polemically, with issues of real food security in disadvantaged countries and the huge contribution made by small farmers in those countries. Critical of international institutional approaches, the book calls for an objective approach to national food security and social equity. Published by Thaksin University Press in Thailand in association with the Institute for International Development in Australia, the book is available from either publisher. You can download it free at http://www.iid.org/publications/SmallFarmers2010.pdf.

The Promise of Religious Naturalism explores religious naturalism as a distinctly promising form of contemporary religious ethics. Examining how religious naturalism responds to the challenges of recent religious transformations and ecological peril worldwide, author Michael Hogue argues that religious naturalism is emerging as an increasingly plausible and potentially rewarding form of religious moral life. Beginning with an introduction of religious naturalism in the larger context of religious and ethical theories, the book undertakes the first extended study of the works of religious naturalists Loyal Rue, Donald Crosby, Jerome Stone, and Ursula Goodenough. Hogue pays particular attention to the ethical components of religious naturalism in relation to religious pluralism and ecological issues.

Michael S. Hogue is associate professor of theology at Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary. He is the winner of the 2008 Templeton Award for Theological Promise.

5. Global Oneness Project Study Guide

Dear Friends,

We are writing to let you know about an important project that has been close to our hearts for a number of years. The Global Oneness Project. This group of young filmmakers has been traveling around the world filming and gathering stories from some amazing people from varied sectors of society. These individuals question our current global paradigm and thus work in original and compassionate ways to reveal our greater human potential. You will see on their site interviews with many friends you might recognize. We have found their work of great value to our own mission and often share their films at gatherings.

Global Oneness Project has recently completed a comprehensive study guide that accompanies their films. We encourage you to take the time to look and share this further with your networks who might have an interest. It is particularly helpful to learning institutions, educators, environmentalists, faith communities and NGO’s who are working to better our world community.

Are you a young adult (age 20 to 30) searching for a way to connect your faith and environmental calling? Join us June 2-9 for the 2011 Eco-Stewards Program, as we delve into the complex environmental issues surrounding land use, poverty, agriculture, and sustainability in a cross-cultural context on the Crow Reservation in southeastern Montana. We will consider how these issues invite us to deepen our relationship with God and with each other — to live more simply, to consume less, and to join in a dynamic Christian movement to care for the earth.

Participants may choose to follow up the week-long program with a paid summer internship at one of several sites, including: Greenwood Farm in Montana; one of several Presbyterian churches in West Virginia; or one of several Presbyterian Church (USA) camps around the country. These Eco-Stewards Interns will put their skills into action through a variety of projects such as planting organic gardens, building green structures, designing and implementing “greening” plans for camps, or creating an eco-stewardship curriculum for campers.

Among others, the program’s leadership will include: Rev. Rob Mark of Harvard University’s Memorial Church and First Presbyterian Church of Waltham, Massachusetts; Dr. David Mark, MD of Crow/Northern Cheyenne IHS Hospital and Bighorn Valley Health Center; Katie Holmes, Associate for the Environmental Ministries Office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A); and Becky W. Evans, a freelance environmental journalist and communication professor at Boston University and Lasell College.

The journal Process Studies is seeking submissions for a Special Focus Section on "Animals and Process Thought."

Process thought presumes a relationality that ascribes value and agency to all creatures, including those we call animal. But despite being seen as ecological partners, or even co-creators of the future, "animals" are often rendered faceless, obscured through generalizations, and are not given due ethical weight or consideration in our daily lives. An adequate treatment must instead address the singularity of every creature (and that of every "animal") with its particular location, aims, interpretation, and ceaseless becoming. Each creature remains irreducible to existing philosophical, ethical, theological, linguistic, biological, socio-political, and economic presentations. Despite its commitment to non-foundationalist ontology, process perspectives have not seriously destabilized the foundations of "the animal," therefore contributing to ongoing discursive and physical entrapment. If process thought seeks novel rationality, how can it be utilized to reimagine both itself and the creatures it claims to affirm?

We thus invite submissions that reimagine the animal and challenge, develop, and expand existing frameworks of relationality. Themes might include but are not limited to: the formulation of animals as objects or events; unlearning or unknowing "the animal"; new perspectives on rights, responsibility, and subjectivity; the limitations of stewardship and rescue paradigms; the construction of identities and bodies; analyses of mourning, loss, and recognition; the production of the animal through consumption patterns and economic policies; and the implications for metaphysics given a reoriented understanding of animals.

We also encourage entries that initiate dialogue with other theoretical positions, such as race and feminist theories, post-structuralism, and eco-criticism. Additionally, we invite reflections on the underexplored relations between creaturely life and disciplines such as ethics, religion, education, theology, art, psychology, philosophy, and politics.

I am pleased to announce that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has released a White Paper, “From Practice to Policy to Practice: Connecting Faith and Conservation in Africa.” In an effort to better engage faith communities in conservation in sub-Saharan Africa, the Paper explores the current practices of connecting faith and conservation, provides information on the faith groups doing conservation work, and presents several examples on faith-based conservation.

The White Paper is a means to stimulate interest in engaging faith communities in biodiversity conservation programs and connecting conservation programs with faith communities in Africa. Next steps involve learning more about other U.S. Government Agency involvement with faith communities, publicizing the connections between faith and biodiversity conservation, and establishing partnerships with faith communities. USAID will reach out to its missions, faith communities, and other conservation practitioners to gather information about additional faith-based connections and possibilities for new partnerships.

Please pass the document on to your colleagues. We look forward to learning about any programs not mentioned here so we can publicize case studies in the future. Please post your comments, ideas, and information about additional programs here or send them directly to me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Ama, the legendary women divers of Japan have been practicing sustainable fishing for hundreds of years, but climate change coupled with overfishing, is bringing them face to face with an uncertain future.

10. Survey for The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change

The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), in partnership with the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and UNESCO, have developed a survey to understand how better to engage the social sciences and humanities community in research about Global Environmental Change (GEC). The survey includes questions about your work and research methods, priority research themes and incentives for participation in the social/human dimensions of GEC research.

Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo